Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to the member's speech. The people of Okanagan—Coquihalla strongly support the taking of fingerprints in criminal cases. They also strongly support a relatively new technology, the taking of DNA samples when it comes to the possibility of solving a crime.
I challenge the member on the issue that these measures are intrusive. There are literally hundreds of unsolved cases of rapes and murders in Canada that police could go now and find the evidence if they were able to use the DNA system to solve these crimes. As the member has pointed out, that would work only if they are a felon or if they have had a criminal record before. That is the only way the Liberal DNA databank system is going to work, if it is a previously convicted felon.
I had to jump up when I heard another Liberal member stating that the Paul Bernardo case could have been solved sooner. Paul Bernardo did not have a criminal conviction. He would not have been in the DNA databank.
I challenge the Liberals on this. They are afraid of a constitutional challenge in the supreme court. The Government of Canada, if it did happen, should on behalf of the people of Okanagan—Coquihalla and other Canadians fight for a simple and very understandable rule, that the rights of law abiding citizens of Canada outweigh the rights of the perpetrators of crime or those accused of crime. Taking a hair sample or a saliva sample or a blood sample is not out of the question. To think it is is totally irrational and not serving Canadians.